


Growing Pains

by jackravenrobyn



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Miscarriage, Post-Episode: s03e18-21 Sozin's Comet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 08:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20112091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackravenrobyn/pseuds/jackravenrobyn
Summary: It had been almost two months since the comet and Zukos subsequent coronation. Suki had returned to Kiyoshi Island only a few days after the crowning, while the rest of the gaang had stayed either to help with initial diplomatic affairs or - in Sokkas case - to make up for all the times he had gone hungry on the journey leading up to it.





	Growing Pains

It had been almost two months since the comet and Zukos subsequent coronation. Suki had returned to Kiyoshi Island only a few days after the crowning, while the rest of the gaang had stayed either to help with initial diplomatic affairs or - in Sokkas case - to make up for all the times he had gone hungry on the journey leading up to it.  
  
Sokka groaned as he rolled out of bed, fumbling around for his cane. His stomach still hurt. Since the previous afternoon it had begun to ache and had not eased _at all_. He hauled himself upright, staggering slightly as he fumbled to get the crutch securely under his arm. He screwed his eyes up, rubbing his stomach absently before hobbling towards his bedroom door.  
  
Katara had just finished dressing in formal clothing for a lunch meeting with various officials when there was a wooden thumping on her chamber door. Before she had the chance to answer, the tanned head of her brother stuck itself around the door. Katara glanced cursorily over at him before returning her attention to the reflection in front of her. Sokka stepped into the room and closed the door softly behind him.  
"Hey sis..." he began, struggling to find words to talk to the person he had been closest to their entire lives. He shifted uneasily between foot and crutch, trying to will his free hand to stop clutching his stomach. If anything, the aching had only gotten worse during the short walk from his own rooms.   
"Can you check something out for me?" He could see the young woman roll her eyes in the mirrored reflection.

  
"If this is about your throatal flaps again, I swear..." She trailed off threateningly.   
"Please," he implored, something in his voice making his sister turn to face him. Taking in his ashen complexion and hunched stance, her expression morphed to concern. 

  
"Lay back," she ordered, gesturing towards a chaise and striding to fetch her water skin from where it was hanging on the headboard. Sokka reclined against the arm of the chaise, half sitting and half laying down. The crutch clattered to the stone floor. Katara put on her best false bravado voice - one that Sokka had always been able to see through, but he appreciated the thought.   
"Right, what seems to be wrong with the patient today?" She demanded, squatting so that she was eye level with her brother. She pushed back a few sweaty strands of hair from his forehead, subtly checking his temperature.   
"My stomach," he mumbled, "feels like pre-heat, but it's lasted too long. Got too bad."   
Katara gestured for him to open his tunic. 

  
"When did it start?"   
"Around noon yesterday. Just an ache at first, but it got worse and now...like a knife...twisting - spirits, that's cold!" He cried as Katara bent the water over his abdomen. She noted absently that his usually lean body was puffy - almost bloated. She used her control over the water to see the inner workings of his body, to find the source of the ailment. She frowned, not quite understanding what the water was telling her. 

  
"How long since your last heat?" she almost smirked at his obvious cringe to the personal question.   
"I-" Sokka swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Not since we left the South Pole. Two, three years ago?" He paused, trying to consider whether or not he should divulge further information. "I thought I felt one coming a few months ago, found a.../partner/...too. We - ah - relieved the oncoming symptoms but that where it just sort of...ended?"   
"The heat didn't come?" Katara clarified, saving her brother from his nervous floundering.   
Sokka nodded sharply. 

  
Katara bent the water back into the skin. She hesitated to break the news to her brother. Sokka seemed to have no idea, and she didn't know how he would take the double blow. Sokka cried out in pain, doubling over and itching his belly. Katara snapped out of her musings.   
"Take your clothes off, get in the bath."   
She motioned in the general direction of the sunken tub and rushed over to the bedroom doors. She leant out to shout at a passing unsuspecting servant, "You! Make my apologies to fire-lord zuko, something urgent has come up and I will be unable to attend." She slammed the door behind her, pushing a chest against it to stop unwanted visitors. She dashed back a cross the room in time to reprimand her brother, " /All/ your clothes! "

  
He was ankle deep standing on the top step in just his loincloth. Sokka rolled his eyes, continuing to descend into the steaming water, wriggling out of it once he was waist deep and tossing it aside with a wet slap. He leant against the side with a content sigh, the heat going some way to reduce his pain.   
  
Katara hiked up her dress and sat on the edge next to his head, up to her knees in water. She rolled up her sleeves, letting her older brother have a moment of calm before she plunged her hands into the water and steeled herself to explain what was happening. 

Before she had a chance, Sokka had cracked open an eye and freaked out. "Spirits, is that blood?! Where is it even coming from??" He tried to scrabble out of the tub at the sight of the blood clouding the water. Katara had to bend the water to keep him still.  
"Calm down, meathead, you'll do more damage if you don't relax." She tried to soothe the flailing boy.  
"Oh gods, am I dying? There's so much more I want to do!"  
"I won't let you die." She proclaimed with such vehemence that it shocked the omega out of his hysterics. He took several deep, calming breaths before finally asking, 

"What's happening?"

  
"You're having a miscarriage. I'm not an expert on omega biology, but I think that when you felt your heat coming, you ended up getting pregnant before the heat fully developed. Your body didn't want to put itself under unnecessary strain so it didn't develop into a full blown heat."  
The 'because it was no longer necessary' hung unspoken in the air between them. Sokka remained silent for a long while, letting Katara bend the water to help with the process and heal up as the miscarriage proceeded.  
  
The bath had been drained and filled with clean water twice before Sokka finally spoke. He tipped his head back against the tiles to look his sister in the eye. His usually jovial face wore a look of utmost sincerity.  
"Promise me... No-one can never know. Not our friends, family, the gaang. Please just promise me this one thing."  
Katara swallowed the lump of emotions that had risen at the earnestness in his request. She nodded solemnly, leaning in to kiss his forehead and caress his cheek.  
  
  
  
  
Despite what her brother might say, Katara was not stupid. It did not take much effort on her part to figure out when her brothers proto-heat would have been. Sokka had been away from the camp at the time, on his way to free their dad and Suki from prison. Considering how easy to read the omega was, Katara could safely assume that her brother had /not/ been gang raped in prison. Therefore Katara was around 95% sure that Zuko was the father of the child Sokka had lost.  
  
  
  
The newly crowned fire lord Zuko had been taking Mai as his companion to all formal events. For all appearances it looked as though she would be made fire consort soon, despite the vehement denial when his advisor's pushed the matter.  
  
  
  
  
Sokka had not left his bed in three whole days by the time Katara decided to take action. The whole situation had affected Sokka more than anticipated. Her usually bubbly brother had fallen into a state of depression. You always could tell something was wrong when he started refusing food.

  
"Sokka... He deserves to know," Katara sighed. Sokka didn't even open his eyes from where he was slumped against his own headboard.  
"Who needs to know what?" He murmured indifferently, tone indicating he held little interest in the conversation.  
"Zuko." She said simply.

  
Sokka tensed at the word, and Katara was sad to admit that it was the strongest emotional response he had given since the miscarriage.  
"I know he was the father, he deserves to know." If there was any doubt left in the water benders mind, Sokkas reaction completely squashed them.  
"What good would it do if I told him? He doesn't need something like this distracting him from putting the world back together! He doesn't need some nobody dragging him down because he feels obligated to take care of his mistakes!"

  
Katara took a breath to calm herself." How do you know he thinks that? If he knows, he might-"  
" I said no. " Sokka cut in firmly.  
Katara looked away and stood to leave. She stopped just before the door, turning to get the last word in.  
" You could have a chance, if only you'd just talk to him about it. But...are you so afraid of being happy that you won't even try?"  
Sokka closed his eyes in response and did not answer. Katara sighed to herself and left the room.  
  
  
  
Barely a handful of short hours after Katara had stormed out of her brothers room, another visitor arrived.  
  
The door was thrown open with enthusiasm, the fire lord not slowing his pace as he strode into the room.

  
"I need the advice of my most trusted advisor, if he isn't too..." Zuko trailed off as the scent of distraught omega hit him. "... Ill, " he added, all confidence and bravado gone.  
Katara had said Sokka was fine, and simply feeling sorry for himself. Zuko hadn't considered for a moment that he might be this bad.  
  
At the sudden flurry of activity that burst into the room, Sokka scrambled with the thin sheet that pooled about his hips, hastily pulling it up to his chin to hide his thinning body. He had lost a lot of weight and muscle mass since he had taken to his bed, and all of a sudden found himself conscious about it.  
The stench of sadness permeated the room, burning the back of Zukos nose.  
Alphas were particularly sensitive to the smell of distressed omega, especially if they were compatible.

  
"What’s wrong?" Zuko asked concerned, frowning. He sat on the foot of the bed, and rubbed Sokkas shin through the sheets in what he hoped was a comforting manner.  
Sokka began to shake with restrained sobs as he stared unblinking at Zukos concerned face. He held eye contact for as long as he could bear it.  
Sokka looked away to the side sharply, squeezing his eyes shut and letting the fat tears that had been building up spill down his cheeks.  
"I'm sorry," he sobbed.  
Zukos stomach dropped. He scrambled up to the top of the bed and gently guided the crying omega onto his lap.  
"It's all my fault!" Sokka wailed into his thigh.  
"No it isn't, you haven't done anything wrong." Zuko soothed, running his fingers through the omegas lank, greasy hair.  
"I didn't know," Sokka sniffed, "I didn't know!"  
Not knowing how to encourage the younger male into opening up, Zuko stayed silent, repeatedly carding his hands through the messy hair in his lap.  
Sokkas sobs showed no sign of slowing down, and Zuko still did not know where to begin comforting his friend.  
"Spirits, I went into battle; of course I lost our baby." Sokka moaned.  
"Stupid, stupid, stupid..." He head-butted Zukos thigh with each word.

  
Zukos train of thought stuttered to an abrupt standstill. _Sokka was having to bear the loss of their child alone._

  
"Hey," Zuko turned the omegas face so that he could see the honesty in his eyes, "there's no way you could have known. There is nothing you could have done."  
Sokka sniffed and rubbed his eyes.  
"you're not mad?" He gulped out. Zuko had never seen Sokka look so vulnerable, not even when he realised his heat was coming.  
"Babe, no." Zuko wiped away a stray tear from Sokkas face. "I could never hate you. Sure, I can get a bit annoyed with you when you say dumb stuff, but I'm not mad at you." He hunched over to drop a kiss on Sokkas forehead. Seeing his startled look, Zuko chuckled.  
"If anything I'm mad at myself for letting you go through that alone."

  
Sokka blinked twice in rapid succession, composing himself. He pulled away from their somewhat intimate position and pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them for the added sense of security.  
" It's fine, I understand you have commitments. I couldn't live with myself if I got in the way of them." He forced a watery smile on his face, but it didn't last.  
Zuko was stunned by how fast Sokka had gone from upset and vulnerable to defensive and closed off. Unfortunately, he knew exactly what Sokka was getting at. His whole court thought it, so it didn't come as a huge surprise that Sokka did too. Mai.

  
"Commitments? Sokka I've been trying to find the right moment to ask if you...wanted to court me. I was trying to find out if you were interested before I asked."  
Sokka snorted. "nobody uses 'court' any more, Zuko."  
The fire lord flushed red with embarrassment. "You know what I meant," he groaned.  
"Do I?" Sokka teased, clocking an eye row.  
"You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

  
Sokka nodded with a wolfish grin. Zuko beckoned the younger man closer, and whispered, "I wanna take you out, treat you good, and when you let me, I'm gonna sink my teeth into that neck of yours to claim you as my own. And after that - if you still want me - you're gonna rule by my side as fire consort, getting fat with my pups."  
Zuko leant back with a playful glint in his eye. Sokka was staring off into the distance, pupils dilated with arousal.

  
" Kinky fire-lord...never cease to amaze me." Sokka murmured to himself.  
Zuko, highly amused, nudged Sokkas side with his foot.  
" You haven't said if you want to step out with me yet."  
Sokka scoffed, "Step out? Seriously?" He cleared his throat and wiped the smirk off of his face. "Of course I want to, I wouldn't have asked you to be my heat partner if I didn't want any of that eventually."


End file.
